Luma Solem

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ups and Downs.

On the up side, we had a "mother's group outing" and went to the beach this week.

On the Down side, Jon started up school, and for the first time, we have to take care of tuition ourselves... but the end is in sight!!!

On the up side, we got some cute pictures at the beach... We went to the most perfect inlet cove just north of Half Moon Bay.

(This is Dawna feeding Kimball a goldfish)(Dawna, Kimball, and Talmage running from the waves)

On the down side, they were all on Angela and Sarah Jean's cameras because our camera broke... like, is completely dead. I'm actually really sad about that... and of course, as soon as that happened, Lawrence started doing a MILLION adorable things... He pulled himself to standing for the first time this week. He got his fifth tooth. He really started crawling on all fours and moving quick! And, he and Dawna are playing together! She loves to make him laugh and he loves to try to follow her while she runs circles around him! Alas, all of this cannot be recorded visually because I have no camera :(.

Jon is a star husband for watching the kids on Saturday night while I went to the Relief Society session of conference. Pres. Uchdorf's (sp?) talk was amazing... in a nutshell: Creating and being compassionate bring us the greatest happiness. It was one of those talks you don't want to end because you feel so inspired and enlightened listening to it. I guess I should feel that way reading the scriptures every day and going to church too... I'll work on that...

Dawna said a funny thing in nursery today... When asked what it meant to be obedient, she said, "It means I get in trouble."

It made me laugh, but I also realized that the only times I talk to her about being obedient is when she's in trouble and I'm telling her she needs to be obedient... I guess I should explain it better, and tell her when she is being good and obedient... hmmm...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Sushi in Sacramento!

We're in Sacramento this weekend visiting Weston! It's been a blast! Last night, we went out to sushi at Ichi Maki restaurant. It was awesome! The restaurant has an amazing atmosphere, very clean bathrooms, and great and knowledgeable waiters (when Jon and I went to sushi in Orem, the waitress didn't even know what kinds of fish they had... it was terrible).

When we entered the restaurant, the guys working at the sushi bar gave Dawna and Lawrence little balloon animals. We just ordered rice for Dawna because I didn't expect her to like anything much there. To my surprise, she drank and ENTIRE bowl of Miso soup (Aunt Emily will be so proud) and then asked for more! When they brought her the rice, they also brought a sweet Terriyaki sauce to put over it, which she loved. Then, our sushi rolls weren't done at the same time, so they brought us some soy beans so snack on while we waited (which Dawna also loved). I was thoroughly impressed with the service there! I felt pretty bad leaving the mess that Lawrence made... he wanted some of Dawna's rice too, and you can probably imagine how that went...

Anyway, the cutest part of the evening was watching Dawna try to eat with chopsticks. She was very determined to do it since everybody else was... and she actually got a couple grains of rice to her mouth each time!

She kind of has a weird face in this picture, but it captured her determination so well!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Going to Bed Book

Dawna follows in her mom's footsteps. When I was little, I would have my mom read me the same book over and over until I had it memorized. Dawna has done the same with Sandra Boynton's "The Going to Bed Book." After reading her stories at night, Jon asks Dawna to read him a story... of course she picks this one.

Welcome to the Dawna and Dad read along. You can follow along with us in your book:That way, you can understand what Dawna is actually trying to say :) Enjoy!

Window Friend

This little photo shoot reminded me of Anne of Green Gables when she talks to "Katie," her window friend... Dawna loves to dress up pretty and dance in front of the mirror, so I took a couple pictures. As always, it was cuter in person, but these sort of capture the cuteness...

Monday, September 08, 2008

Labor Day Kayaking

Last Monday, Labor Day, Jon and I went kayaking with the Antioch crew. Mom Koberstein was nice enough to watch the kids for a few hours while we went down to the Sacramento River and the Dow wet lands to explore.

It was my first experience kayaking and it was pretty fun... I didn't even fall in :) The most frustrating part was trying to get the kayaks to go strait in still water. They are designed to be on the river, with flowing water to help them along, so trying to keep them going one direction in still water is pretty much impossible.

We all took a trip down memory lane as we used one scouting project (the kayaks were actually made by Jon's scout troop) to go tour Jon's Eagle project (the docks in the wetlands).

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Developing Talents!

So, now that I have the best life in the world, ie, I'm a stay-at-home mom, I've had the chance to develop a new talent. This will shock many of you who have known me for a long time, but I've actually taken up sewing quite a bit.

Sarah Jean and I go get free fabric about once a month. The fabric comes from old upholstery samples and such, so all the pieces are relatively small. But, I've been experimenting with some of the pieces I've gotten, and made some fun stuff so far; for example:

Kitchen accessories: a very portable "stove and oven," if you will, made on an old carpet sample. Also, an apron, complete with pockets! (That's Dawna's favorite feature)

Pillows! These are actually even easier than you'd think... my mom has some old pillows that were worn around the edges and didn't look very nice anymore, so all I had to do was make a pillow case and stuff the old pillows inside.

And finally, purses and bags! These are a little harder to make... I didn't even want to embarass myself by showing my first attempt... it was hilariously hideous... anyway, these two aren't so bad... but still can improve some.

I've really enjoyed learning a little more sewing... it's really relaxing and fun when you don't have the stress of knowing you had to buy all the fabric. Makes you want to experiment and try things and be brave. So... what should I try to make next??

Saturday, August 30

Last Saturday was a historic day. Firstly, because we took Dawna and Lawrence to their first professional baseball game. It's one of those perks of living in the Bay Area: there are pro sports team coming out your ears...

We went to the evening game against the Twins, enjoying a tailgate party with uncle Ralph and crew before the game and a fantastic pyro-spectacular after the game. AND the A's actually WON! That made the day all the more miraculous! Grant and Sarah came with us and we were privileged to be the ones to accompany Grant to his first Major League Baseball Game!

Of course, even after stuffing ourselves before the game, I had to get the garlic fries. There's nothing like them anywhere else in the world, and I haven't been able to successfully recreate them in my own kitchen... that's the only way I can justify spending $5.50 on a dinky little plate of French fries...but I enjoyed every bite! Jon even admitted he had some fun, even though it was a baseball game :)